A Step Toward More Pay for Airport Workers

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took a significant step on Wednesday toward increasing wages and benefits for workers across all its facilities, beginning with its airports.

The agency’s operations committee voted unanimously to direct Patrick J. Foye, the Port Authority’s executive director, and other officials to devise a plan to bring about the increases, which have for months been the subject of a pitched campaign from airport workers.

Mr. Foye said on Wednesday that he expected to return to the agency’s board with his recommendation next month.

In January, Mr. Foye sent a letter to four airlines — American, Delta, JetBlue and United — calling on them to grant an immediate raise of $1 an hour to those who made less than $9 an hour. The workers should eventually receive $10.10 an hour, Mr. Foye wrote.

The change was to affect only workers at La Guardia and Kennedy Airports, but the committee members agreed on Wednesday that the changes should eventually cut across all Port Authority facilities, including Newark Liberty International Airport.

Mr. Foye’s letter was sent the same day that President Obama announced in his State of the Union address that he was signing an executive order to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for future federal contract workers.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has expressed support for the increases at La Guardia and Kennedy.

The Port Authority’s deputy executive director, Deborah Gramiccioni, the top staff appointee of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey at the agency, would not discuss the governor’s position on Wednesday.

“I’m not going to get into my personal conversations with Governor Christie,” she said.

The committee’s vote was hailed as a major victory for S.E.I.U. Local 32BJ, a union representing building service employees, whose push for wage increases has attracted attention to the more than 12,000 people who work for contractors hired by airlines and terminal operators at the region’s airports.

Many union members attended Wednesday’s meeting, cheering as a board member recounted the vote.

Demetrius DeBiase, 43, a baggage handler at the Newark airport who currently earns $8.25 an hour, said that a raise would allow him to take a long-awaited vacation with his children.

Others like Shareeka Elliott, 27, a terminal cleaner at Kennedy, spoke of the “wiggle room” that even a modest pay increase afforded her on bill payments.

“With my current paycheck, I can blink and then it’s gone,” said Ms. Elliott, who earns $8 an hour.

“We’re not trying to be greedy,” she added. “We’re just trying to live.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: A Step Toward More Pay for Airport Workers. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe